BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL

The story behind the film of director Kenneth Anger's 1972 cult hit LUCIFER RISING and its corresponding soundtrack by BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL AND THE FREEDOM ORCHESTRA is actually more interesting than the surreal cinematic clip and equally tripped out music itself in many ways. The development of the film started as far back as 1966 when Anger was living in San Francisco and wanted to document the countercultural moment that was taking place in California. Heavily influenced by Aleister Crowley's form of Luciferianism, Anger soon met BOBBY SOLEIL and began to film in his typical fragmentary style which resulted in one of the most bizarre and authentic period short films to have emerged in the late 60s / early 70s timeline. Shot between 1966 and 1972, the year of its release the film was designed to be about "the Rebel Angel behind what's happening in today's world" with the tenets of Aleister Crowley's maxim that "the Key of Joy is Disobedience."

While the film appeared in 1972, the soundtrack as recorded by BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL AND THE FREEDOM ORCHESTRA wouldn't emerge until 1980 on the fly by night record label ACR and wouldn't find a proper reissuing until 2004 on the Arcanum label. The storyline of how this all came to be is straight out of Lucifer's melodrama and began when Anger offered the role of Lucifer in the film to BEUSOLEIL who only accepted under the condition that he would write the musical score to the soundtrack. After a fallout, BEAUSOLEIL moved to Los Angeles where who would live with Gary Hinman in Topanga Canyon where he met Charles Manson and become part of the Manson Family. As he fell deeper into the cult life eventually things turned sour and he murdered Hinman over some financial stuff and was then convicted of murder. While originally on death row his sentence was commuted to life without parole.

On Anger's side of things, in 1972 he approached Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin to compose the soundtrack to the film and even found himself living in his London residence before a nasty fight with Page's wife resulted in the whole project being scrapped. Dismayed and in need of a soundtrack to accompany the dialogue free surreal visual feast of the eyes, Anger turned back to BEAUSOLEIL who at this time was confined in the Duel Vocational Institution near Tracy, CA to finish the score which he started when the film was in the making. With a mere $3000 worth of recording equipment, Anger provided BEAUSOLEIL with the basics and he set forth to finish the soundtrack from within the Tracy Prison and in the end provided a 44 minute soundtrack to a film that was only 29 minutes in length however there was even more music to emerge on the 2004 release which brought the playing time up to 102 minutes.

In order to understand the music of the LUCIFER RISING soundtrack i would recommend first watching the film which is readily available on YouTube in order to understand the context. While the soundtrack more than holds up on its own it is greatly amplified with the visuals of one of the most surreal short films ever made which is rich with occult imagery ranging from Egyptian mythology to the dark occult arts of Crowley's Magick. Musically speaking BEAUSOLEIL was quite a gifted composer and took the classical sensibilities of composers like Claude Debussy and married them with the early psychedelic space rock of Pink Floyd. The original soundtrack consisted of six "Parts" each shifting the theme slightly to amplify a new segment of the film. The music sounds a bit like Goblin's later horror film keyboard rich thrillers and also reminds me of an early attempt to create something in the line of Philip Glass' "Koyaanisqatsi."

BEAUSOLEIL perfectly nailed the mystical experiences brought out in the film and provided the most suitable dark and sinister sounds to match the occult images of the film. Despite almost 15 minutes of this recording not finding its way into the film, the music presented here still flows almost flawlessly as themes gently shift from one mid-tempo sweep to another. The album is completely instrumental and excels at scoping out a true interdimensional feel and made all the stranger by the fact that BEAUSOLEIL was involved in one of the most bizarre personalities of the 60s in the form of Charles Manson and recorded deep inside a prison for the crime of murder. This is definitely one of the most unique albums ever to have been released but more than that it's a wickedly pleasant listening experience as well.

A soundtrack which sounds like a dated soundtrack for a dated movie.

I have watched the 1972 Kenneth Anger´short film & I have heard its soundtrack patiently and without artificial expectations sadly both are totally overrated and have dated horribly any way I can think of even if not trying.

Music wise its unimpressive, bland and disappointingly squarish. What was supposed to be obscure and satanic, (the real Lucifer) time has turned into oblivious music. I do prefer by far Jimmy Page´s unrequited (whatever the reaon) work.

But the Devil is a lucrative trademark which excites the hormones of his followers, no matter how or why, his name sells to all those bad boys and girls who need this kind of stuff to really feel baaad . So besides its cult followers better opinion or its composer´s criminal record, this album barely rises above the collectors´ 2 stars PA qualification.

PS- If you dig Satanic vibes in your Electronic music plate, macabre composer Lustmord will blow your soul away, this OST and its film just a couple of chuckles if lucky!

Before falling in with Charles Manson's crowd - an association with infamous consequences that would land Beausoliel in jail right up to this day - Bobby Beausoliel acted and promised to create a soundtrack for the Kenneth Anger short film Lucifer Rising. A project plagued with delays and funding shortages, Anger finally managed to complete the piece in the middle of the 1970s, and despite being incarcerated Beausoliel was able to make good on his commitment to provide the soundtrack, forming a band with musically inclined inmates to perform it.

Whilst the sound quality on this release is occasionally shaky, the album still sounds pretty good when you consider that it was recorded in prison. Musically speaking, we're talking epic electronic space rock with heavy organ and guitar solos and esoteric spiritual intentions - the sort of material you might imagine Pink Floyd and Popol Vuh creating on a collaboration together. Worth a listen for any space rock fan, though some may find the fact that it's an album by a convicted murderer off-putting. Still, it's miles better than the prison albums of Varg Vikernes (of Burzum and church-burning fame).

If you've never heard of this man please check out my "Lucifer Rising" review that details his Hollywood-like story. Bobby is still in jail as I write this but his music is heard all over the world. Sometime after the "Lucifer Rising" sessions Bobby was inspired to make more music and according to the RYM site he released an album called "Orb" in 2001 which is exactly the same as disc one on this double cd recording but minus the final two tracks that are on this one. So I imagine he decided to keep making music until he had enough for a double disc, and this was all done from 1997- 2004. I love the 45 minute first disc. It has lots of atmosphere and darkness so it's right up my alley.Unfortunately disc two is around 79 minutes and that darkness along with the guitar are held in check. Also there are these flute and horn sounds that are probably electronic in nature that I find annoying. Just my tastes in electronics but disc two drops this to a 3.5 star recording overall. I'll still be playing the first disc though because it's just too good to ignore. In the liner notes we get an interview with Bobby along with pictures of many of his paintings. He likes naked females apparently (haha).

Anyway disc one repeates themes and as I mentioned we get lots of powerful and dark atmospheres.I really like "Songs Of The Forest People" with those nature sounds. Plenty of guitar on the final "Untitled" track with percussion and a spacey soundscape.This album is great to listen to with headphones on.

On disc two I like the "Mantra" tracks because of the waves of sound. "Medicine Man" is cool with the guest vocalist chanting while we get that native drum beat repeated.

A good album overall and as I said only disc one will stay in my rotation.

4.5 stars. Hugues has explained the Bobby Beausoleil story well but a story as incredible as this is worth repeating. It begins in 1967 in San Fransisco where Bobby and his psychedelic chamber band THE ORKUSTRA were gaining some attention. David LaFlamme (violin) who would go on to play in IT'S A BEAUTIFL DAY was part of his band. Bobby was approached after a concert by avant-garde film maker Kenneth Anger who told him that he was making a movie called "Lucifer Rising" and he wanted Bobby to play Lucifer and to also do the soundtrack. Bobby agreed but he would soon get too caught up in his role in real life and his band had had enough and quit. He formed another band and they called themselves THE MAGICK POWERHOUSE OF OZ. The movie and the band name were inspired by Aleister Crowley. Anyway Bobby and Kenneth would have a falling out and Kenneth moved to London, England while Bobby headed south. He had a chance meeting with one Charles Manson who Bobby was attracted to because of the beautiful girls that hung around him, and also he liked the fact the biker gangs came and went from Manson's ranch. Meanwhile in England Kenneth got Jimmy Page from LED ZEPPELIN to committ to doing the soundtrack for his movie "Lucifer Rising" as Jimmy was a big Crowley fan. Back in California Bobby in an effort to impress the bikers sold them a large amount of mescaline. Unfortuntely the guy Bobby bought this off was a fraud and the drug turned out to be nothing but junk. The bikers demanded their money back. Meanwhile Bobby found the drug dealer and killed him. He was busted and at the first trial there was a hung jury. Unfortunately for Bobby in between trials the Helter Skelter murders by the Manson family occurred. Bobby was sentenced to life in prison, it is believed his association with Manson guaranteed him that.

Back to Kenneth in England and he's getting frustrated with Page for putting him off constantly in regards to the soundtrack. Bobby is serving his time in San Quentin Prison and he befriends Steve Kesler a fellow inmate and revolutionary. The Neo-Nazis feel threatened by him and put out a hit on him but Kesler and Bobby are tipped off and attack them first. Bobby receieved a broken jaw and cheekbone in the fracas but the Neo-Nazis got the worst of it. Bobby couldn't see out of one eye for a while and they transfered him to Tracy State Prison. In prison Bobby heard that "Lucifer Rising" was going to happen and he wanted to be a part of it. It was unfinished business as far as he was concerned. He had sent Kenneth a post card from jail telling Kenneth he still wanted to do this and Kenneth agreed and fired Page.

From there thanks to an understanding prison Warden and a small 3,000 dollar budget from Kenneth, Bobby now had the permission and means to do the soundtrack. The budget was small so Bobby learned electronics and basically built a studio in the prison from scratch. He built keyboards, special effects generators, guitars, bass and more. With the money he bought a PA system,microphones, a four track recorder, an open reel tape deck, a six channel mixer and a drum kit. He found an old trumpet in the gym. Eight inmates joined him and they called themselves THE FREEDOM ORCHESTRA.Included was a talented guitarist named Steve Grogan who was part of Manson's inner circle. It took 3 years to finish what with the prison riots and lockdowns along with his band members getting transfered or in trouble etc. We get to hear trumpet,drums,bass,two guitars, Fender Rhodes, electric keyboards and electronics. And the shocking thing is that overall this sounds amazing. Quite spacey and dark but with some variety as well. It's one long suite divided into six parts with the songs blending into one another. He did it ! There's a picture of him playing a self-made double neck guitar during a live concert they did of the "Lucifer Rising" compositions in prison in 1978. Lots of pictures and info in the liner notes. He would later get stabbed twice but survived and has since released another cd.

"Part 1" opens with spacey sounds that come in and echo then a guitar arrives in a powerful manner.Cymbals, drums follow just before 2 minutes as that heavy atmosphere continues. This is powerful and moving for me. "Part 2" features some mournful trumpet then this spacey and otherworldly atmosphere takes over. Emotion. A calm before 4 minutes then the guitar comes in. "Part 3" settles in at 2 1/2 minutes to a peaceful and uplifting sound. Liquid keys too.

"Part 4" is a short piece with loud sounding electronics. "Part 5" is the 15 1/2 minute epic. Drums and spacey sounds then the guitar comes in around a minute and it starts to rip it up. It turns spacey before 3 1/2 minutes.The guitar joins in after 5 minutes then drums after 7 minutes followed by trumpet a minute after that.The trippy sounds continue.The trumpet sounds amazing after 13 1/2 minutes to the end. "Part 6" is led by guitar and drums until they start to fade out at 5 1/2 minutes then waves of sound roll in and out. The guitar is back a minute later as it rebuilds.

Bobby would not stop here as he has since released another album, but that's a story for another day.

There's a whole lot of mystification surrounding this cult-album. And even if it is a good piece of music, the circumstances surrounding its inception sound quite more interesting then the actual music. It connects seemlessly with the style of the lazy-hazy psychedelica of the early 70's, and as such it owes a lot to bands like early Floyd, Ash Ra Temple and Cosmic Jokers. But it doesn't reach the same level of quality.

The album is entirely instrumental and consists mostly of guitar/psych-blues with hints of progressive electronic. The recording quality is very low-fi, and becomes a bit of a problem as the album continues. It's one of the main reasons why I would only recommend this to collectors and avid kraut fans.

The music is quite good generally, with the opening part as the standout. It has very mysterious layers of chords and effects weaving in and out of focus. The instrumentation has more guitar then synths but the effect is sure that of progressive electronic. Part II is less experimental. It's got a kind of ballad pace with a slow melancholic melody that keeps intensifying as it goes along. Typical 70s psychedelic soundtrack material. Part III further explores the dreamy pastoral mood. Part IV concludes the very good first half of the album with a short a nice melody that gets perverted with experimental effects, sounds like a musical box that goes berserk.

Part V and VI make up more then half of the entire length and it is here that the album succumbs under its dreary mood and amateurish recording. Part V is 15 minute variation on part II and quite dull to these ears. Part VI is more fun, but again it sounds like 1970 Pink Floyd outtakes that were recorded from 3 miles distance.

'Lucifer Rising' has a couple of good tunes but is ultimately a disappointment due to its bootleg-y sound and lack of ideas. Somewhere between 2 and 3 stars.

Lucifer Rising is a soundtrack album for a movie with the same name. I'm not going to go into detail about Bobby BeauSoleil being a convicted murderer associated with the Manson family back in the late '60s because this album is great. This album is very psychedelic, trippy progressive electronic with very strong krautrock leanings. This honestly is one of the best electronic albums I own, and it's a bummer more music isn't available from this nut.

So many different atmospheres are present on this album. It's occasionally beautiful, sometimes it's fast paced and frantic, sometimes dark drones take over, but the psychedelic feel is always in the mix. Fuzzy and dreary sounding electric blues guitar playing is a huge standout on the last track and adds great dramatic, traumatic beauty to the album as a whole.

If you can get find this album, get it. It's fantastic. Maybe you'd feel bad about buying an album of music created by a murderer. So? A masterpiece is a masterpiece whether you like it or not.

Listening to this rare and gigantically profound experiment of music and fierce emotions certainly makes you see (or even believe in) what a precious, mystical and exuberant (without superficial crashes) you have in your hands and you're "blessed" to listen to. The soundtrack (with one highly professional music, given the taste for film scores) is not far from a piquant solid and soliloquist music, the polish of styles and infusions is drawn in a relatively cool, still intrinsic way, the dark manners of a dark artist, with a raw talent, end up topping everything that makes the album so highly important - and wonderfully interesting. Apart from being a collision of forces and abnormal delicacies, which emphasizes on the psychedelic and electro-magnetic character of the sound and the trance, Beausoleil's jewel moment is also one in which purity has an original taste and consistency is, after all, an inspiring detail in the making of the dreams and the high-pressured impressions. There's no bad taste in this soundtrack, plus the material, though without a clear patent, can fearlessly be a tremendous favorite in the genre(s) it leaves its mark.

Uncut, but made out of perfect fragments, Lucifer Rising lies in an endlessly enclosed hippie register, with spontaneous effects, powerless chords and nebulous or brusque deliriums; but, for a sake of art and expression, the music spots other layers, like the dark chemistry of a late psychedelic pasture, a electronic minimal crush of expressions and a long or prolonged set of deep reflections and unearthly somas. Of course, Lucifer Rising is, after all, Bobby Beausoleil's inspirational deep and dark concept, showing a bit of avant-garde shine in his temperament, but, besides anything, showing his unnatural exactness in the musical totem and epic experiment that is created and dryly preserved. The film survives itself as an experimental work, with a fringe of a documentary's ideal context sketching textures of an artistic angle. Lucifer Rising does have a lot of "film score" sense, but it's spot is nevertheless made of a blazing music and a prevailing rasp.

Lucifer Rising is, no doubt, pure music, one you can't ultimately waste on words and impressions - it has such an effect, you can expose it a sum of interesting words and dark essences, high dreams and plausible eccentricities, but it stays the sharp material that must be listened, in a hush. Beausoleil, from having such an startling finesse to being even forced by his sentence as a criminal, does an outstanding state of the art, which further becomes an artistic music, rather than a work of psych-electro manner, pouched within the fullness of the genres and the times. Pragmatically, Lucifer Rising reflects the good (but perhaps fuller than usually) choice of a soundtrack trepidation, plus the heavy and distinct flawless art made by Beausoleil - only afterwards is it music, preciously conceited and frantically over-droned.

Beausoleil is, on his own, a master-musician, since you can fell how the psychedelic, artistic and crimson-pitches visions belong to a spiritual voice inside him, plus his guitar and electronic blends are integral and intriguing. Several artists form "The Freedom Orchestra" and do more than jangling, inside a project that's kindly spotless: Rhodes and neuro-drums are used in a various way, wind-instruments push a wicked sense in key moments.

The six movements of Lucifer Rising chill every bit of a sentiment, with all the craft already mentioned. The first two or three are different kind of electronic atmosphere and psych-reflexive succumbed effects, the fourth edging to have a more light-screeched impulse. Movement Five is epic and complex, with a second part of sax dark melody and neurotic aroma that's an artistic climax. Movement Last turns to a bit of blues-ambient surf, in a less convincing way. Four annexes, gathered under the title Lucifer Rising sessions , are generally available, with two minimal and baffling songs, but with two monumental compositions of dark art.

Lucifer Rising is not a masterpiece, but that barely means anything: it's a shacking work, rare and breakthrough-ish, with a genius damned artist as the one who keeps these plumber of visions, rock, exquisite bitter tastes and recurring otherworldly experiments. It is assuring that electronic-drone and psychedelic rock hotheads can find a drop of fundamental music in Beausoleil's outstand. It is revealing that progressive rock fans shouldn't mess with this work, if they're far from triumphing over this serious approach.

In the course of this review, will take a good part of it to explain the background and the many legends/myths around one of rock history's most bizarre, elusive, mythic rock-related film ever produced, but very seldom-seen, even if it is about to get finally an official release almost 30 years after its completion, which itself took around 15 years.

In the mid-60's, noted obscurantist/occultist Kenneth anger drew plans to make a film through Alistair Crowley's works and had approached Jimmy Page (of Zep fame and a noted Crowley enthusiast, having bought his Scottish castle) for documentation, and through conversations, they decided that the guitarist would provide the soundtrack. A first version of the film, lasting 30- minutes once existed, but after some insistence, Jimmy Page convinced the filmmaker to extend his version and a second version, this time lasting 90 minutes, was finished by the very end of the 70's. But in the course of the decade, Page and Anger got into a solid dispute that still lasts nowadays, and Page forbade him to ever use his music for his film. Still nowadays, Page's composition remains almost never heard.

Having taken part in the Charles Manson gang through his musical activities (he was a guitarist on the LA scene), BB was also implicated in the series of murder that was one of the blows to the hippie dream. Purging a life sentence for murder, BB will most likely never see freedom again, so he started escaping, seeking freedom through his artistic activities.

Among these myths, apparently Beausoleil had played a role (this is highly implausible, because most of the filming took place while he was already incarcerated) in the first version of Kenneth Anger's film Lucifer Rising, which was an Egyptian-derived Alistair Crowley documentary. For some reasons, BB had some footage that Kenneth Anger needed and this was why they got in touch again. In either case, with anger looking for someone to provide the music, he turned to BB, which accepted, despite the fact that he was in jail. Legend has it that Beausoleil built most of the instrument needed for the music, by ordering the separate elements even down to the recording table and his colleague musician inmates' instruments as well. Whether this is true or not is not clear and belongs to the halo of haze around the film.

According to the few sources that did see the film, it is little else than nonsense and completely obtuse, but whatever few qualities are there, they are strongly enhanced by the superb soundtrack, courtesy of Beausoleil. And indeed, the soundtrack is quite a marvellous surprise; further human proof that even for criminals, artistic greatness is not related to the creator's character or persona.

The 90-min+ soundtrack is made up of six untitled movements, all entirely instrumental, and filled with breathtakingly beautiful music. Indeed, the whole albums circles around early Barrett-less Floyd and early Ash Ra Tempel music. Ranging from the mysteriously cosmic to the solemnly grandiose to the flabbergastingly beautiful, this music can only astound you, even more so knowing that it was created in prison. BB's electronicly-driven guitar, Sutton's keyboards (including a Fender Rhodes, which shoots the legend of self-built instruments), and Herbie Rascone's trumpet arte all providing spine-chilling moments over a not so simple backtrack of drumming, obviously tracing Nick Mason's better moments.

The whole album is a rather even affair, like you'd expect from Kosmische Muzik to be. Slow-evolving, but flawlessly progressing through the dreamy realm of Beausoleil's search for Nirvana in the depth of his jail cell, Lucifer Rising is certainly an awesome gem unearthed from this astounding 70's decade. A must for everyone, regardless of the future film's release.

Ultra rare and precious material composed almost in secret during the 70's. "Lucifer Rising" is also the soundtrack of Kenneth Anger's experimental, acid and metaphysical film. This CD contains Bobby Beausoleil's classic bluesy psych based sound but turned into more spacey, gorgeously atmospheric and poetical musical textures. Keyboards are really haunted, strongly progressive and complex, delivering a perfect combination with guitar sound effects. The opening track is a wonderful freak out but also meditative composition, featuring weird "cosmic" electronic effects, long linear synth sequence, killer guitar leads, harmonics, echoes, cymbals played in an absolute grandiose, eloquent vibe. Incredibly mysterious, elegant and enigmatic at the same time.Track two starts with dark heavy guitar harmonies then goes into a mystical, ethereal , sacred universe full of synthesised / organ motifs: a really deep, "stoned" ambience including some nice proggy moments. Track 3 is a cosmic rocking composition with fuzzed out guitar leads. It ends up with cyclical electronic moves, including a very refined melody. Track 4 is only made of eternal, infernal, "hallucinatory" organ chords. Track 5 contains heavenly trumpet melodies with slowing, touching organic motifs. Track 6 contains guitar manipulations, discreet, fragile "dreamy" like melodies for organ. The two bonus tracks (white dog music edition) surf on the experimental "kosmiche musik", almost exclusively written for electronic materials. A very divine, unearthly atmosphere for droning sitar sequences and haunted synth sounds (closed to TD first era). A wonderful album dominated by very dark, melancholic, visceral organ sections and a few spacey-rock guitars. Top class album, highly inspired, constant in term of musical quality. At the same level of the best offerings from krautrock. Actually in my top 10 of favourite prog rock albums.